The tree is gone.\u00a0 The big hackberry tree.\u00a0 The one that lived and grew in my back yard for 30 years or more. \u00a0The one that provided so much shade.\u00a0 The one that provided food for the\u00a0birds.\u00a0 The\u00a0one\u00a0that held the rope swing that we all enjoyed, flying through the air in long swooping\u00a0arcs, toes pointed to the sky.\u00a0 The tree is gone, and I will miss it.<\/p>\n
We had to cut it because it had begun to\u00a0split and crack from it’s aged and weakened forks.\u00a0\u00a0It seemed\u00a0we were only one gusty thunderstorm away from major backyard disaster.\u00a0 I was afraid of how it’s frailty might cause me harm, so we did away with it before it had a chance to collapse.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I feel like that tree.\u00a0 Weak, barely holding it together.\u00a0 Starting to crack and split apart, I feel like just one more storm might do me in.\u00a0 I wonder why God doesn’t just take me out before I fall apart and do great harm in the process.\u00a0 But I suppose He has more patience than I.\u00a0\u00a0 And I suspect He knows a bit more about how to deal with such things.\u00a0 Perhaps He has a bit more knowledge about holding weak trees together . . .\u00a0 and a lot more strength to do so.<\/p>\n
\u00a0A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory;\u00a0And in His name Gentiles will trust.”<\/em> \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The tree is gone.\u00a0 The big hackberry tree.\u00a0 The one that lived and grew in my back yard for 30 years or more. \u00a0The one that provided so much shade.\u00a0 The one that provided food for the\u00a0birds.\u00a0 The\u00a0one\u00a0that held the rope swing that we all enjoyed, flying through the air in long swooping\u00a0arcs, toes pointed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[155,14,154],"class_list":["post-1242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider","category-misc","tag-storms","tag-trees","tag-weakness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1242"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1769,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions\/1769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00a0\u00a0 – Mathew 12:20-21\u00a0 NKJV<\/em><\/p>\n